Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared an end Wednesday to California's long fiscal nightmare -- year after year of multibillion-dollar state budget deficits -- with a new spending plan he says will balance income and outgo. But is it real or just a new version of the financial trickery that has been employed by the state's politicians for the past half-decade? The answer: It's kinda, more-or-less, maybe balanced with some serious caveats. The new budget appears to be fairly straightforward and is very close to being balanced, but only if the Legislature goes along with several billion dollars of cuts and transfers...

Was anyone watching Fox News on Saturday 10/30 with Kerry at a rally where he gave the three-finger "W" sign several times. My husband and I couldn't believe it, but he did it several times holding up both hands.

Los Angeles, CA-- It's been two years since male models Steve and Mark applied for a marriage license in Los Angeles county and were told by the county clerk that their application could not be accepted. "She actually laughed in our faces and thought it was a joke," says Steve, a 6'3" muscular 24 year old. "I told her she was a fat cow," Mark adds, smiling. Mark and Steve, who have been living together in a charming tudor style cottage on Coldwater Canyon for the past five years now find themselves facing down the system once again. "We are...

The state Supreme Court declined yesterday to delay the trial of John Athan, charged with killing a 13-year-old girl in 1982. Lawyers asked the court to consider whether Seattle police used an improper trick to get evidence against him. Supreme Court Commissioner Geoffrey Crooks did not find sufficient reason for justices to consider the issue before Athan's trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday in King County Superior Court. Earlier this year, police mailed a letter to Athan on fake law-firm letterhead saying he was eligible for money in a fictitious class-action lawsuit over parking tickets. Athan replied, sealing an...

Bishops warn Catholics about 'Left Behind' books The Roman Catholic bishops of Illinois are condemning the best- selling, Christian-themed Left Behind books as "anti-Catholic."excerpted ...Catholicism teaches that the Rapture actually happens at Christ's Second Coming, and not seven years before, as LaHaye and Jenkins describe and many other Christians believe. It's a subtle difference, but one hotly debated by Christians since the 1880s, when the idea of a pre-tribulation Rapture was popularized by theologians including evangelist Dwight L. Moody, founder of Chicago's Moody Bible Institute. "The bishops' main worry is, if they don't say anything, there could be Catholics...

Saturday, August 10, 2002 -- The PBS tribute to the police and fire fighters of September 11 is what set me off. It was just a notice between programs. But, I had been waiting for something to light the fuse ever since a local [Oregon] station official came on the screen and asked me to write them a letter about how Oregon Public Broadcasting has changed my life. He expects the letters to be about how much more wonderful life is for everybody now that public broadcasting's army of lefties is distorting history, generating racial divisiveness, mis-reporting the news, demeaning...